The reconstruction of the so-called "Priest-king" from Knossos has always been uncertain. When the fragments were excavated under Arthur Evans (not by him personally) in 1901, his first thought was that they belonged to different personages and "the torso may suggest a boxer". Anatomical observation of this torso shows a contracted powerful musculature and the left disappeared arm was surely in ascendant position because the pectoral muscle is raised. These observations allow us to conclude the torso was one of a boxer resembling the many athletic representations engraved on the Boxer Vase from
Hagia Triada. The lily crown belonged to another personage, perhaps a priestess (like on
Hagia Triada sarcophagus). The painted reliefs of two athletes boxing in the palace of Knossos were surely the model of the
"boxing children" fresco in
Akrotiri at
Thera. ("AMH") Evans later changed his mind, and the reconstruction reflects his later idea of the figure as a "Priest-King"; he used the image on the cover of all volumes of his main publication on the Knossos excavations, despite the cost of gold-embossing the crown. Evans' change of mind was perhaps largely because he had decided that the original painted wall with the fresco was part of a processional corridor in the palace, and the figure one of a group of others shown in procession, via another corridor, towards the Central Court of the palace, always thought to be the place where bull-leaping took place. In the reconstruction, the rope in the invented hand at right was, Evans thought, leading a
sphinx or a
griffin; a bull being led to a ceremony or sacrifice might be another possibility, but in fact there is no evidence the missing arm held a rope at all. The fresco
griffins from the "Throne Room" wear plumed crowns comparable to the "Priest-King", and if his crown in fact come from another figure, that would be a possibility. In the view of
Nanno Marinatos, in Minoan art "the plumed crown" is only worn by deities, griffins and the queen, who is, by definition, also the chief priestess. The "boxer" idea, for the torso, has resurfaced in recent years, as has an identification as a god. Other suggested reconstructions, that do not combine the piece with the crown with the torso piece, may have the head facing to the viewer's right. The idea of a processional context has been disputed. As to the direction of the head, a careful examination (atop a ladder) by Maria C. Shaw led her to conclude, from the absence of tresses of hair, that at least the restored direction of the head looking to the viewer's left, was correct, which the boxer and god ideas rejected. The notes by Duncan Mackenzie, the original excavator in 1901, were not done to modern standards, and in particular leave the exact depth where the fragments were found unclear, as well as raising problems reconciling the exact findspot with Evan's published account. Evans and Mackenzie thought that the fragments were found directly (or nearly so) below their original location on a wall, having been swept, or allowed to fall, down to a basement level after being removed from the wall.
Sinclair Hood, a later excavator at Knossos, says that "the fragments were found close below the surface in the much eroded southern region of the palace, and were therefore virtually unstratified".
Gender As a general rule, Minoan art followed the Ancient Egyptian convention regarding skin colours of "red" (usually more a reddish-brown) for men's flesh and white for women's flesh (also yellow for gold, blue for silver, and red for bronze). The skin of the
Prince of the Lilies has most often been interpreted as "red", but some writers have seen it, at least on some fragments, as a white that became dirty when buried. There are also arguments that the colour gender distinction is not invariable in Minoan painting, for example when, as here, the background is a dark red. The elaborate crown may compare better with others on female figures (whether human or griffin) than male ones. One proposal was that the figure, including the crown, was a female
bull-leaper. Two apparent females are shown in the famous
Bull-Leaping Fresco from the Knossos palace; at any rate the two figures at either end of the bull are a white that contrasts strongly with the "red" one vaulting over the bull, although they may only be wearing loinclothes (again, the lack of most parts leaves gender uncertain). However, it has also been suggested that these "white" figures are also male, and the colour difference perhaps indicates youth or seniority. Although most figures with crowns are females or griffins, Maria Shaw points to a male tumbler in one of the
Minoan frescoes from Tell el-Daba, who wears a (considerably simpler) tailed crown. She suggests that athleticism and "royalty" in a Minoan context may have gone together, with the victors in athletic contests given a special status, even an enduring political one. ==Minoan Frescoes==